Language
Language Barriers and Hybridity
The official language of France is of course French, and Marseille is no exception. Just like in the Southern United States, the South of France has its own distinct accent. I am still a beginner at French and at times I found it difficult to understand the southern twang. Many of our meetings were carried out French so our group had to rely on four student translators and our two chaperones to interpret. The inability to completely understand what people were saying was a frequent frustration among the non-French speaking members of our group. Oftentimes it is difficult to fully appreciate the culture of a city without an understanding its language. But overall, the language barrier did not prevent us from having an enjoyable and comprehensive experience in Marseille.
Today more than 120,000 immigrants from the Maghreb call Marseille home. As a result, one can hear a variety of languages being spoken on the streets of Marseille. This phenomenon is reflected in pop-culture. Algerian born pop star Kenza Farah uses both French and Arabic in her song Sous le Ciel de Marseille. Some Arabic words have even been adopted into the French vernacular. For example kif, the Arabic word for wellbeing or happiness is sometimes used by young people to replace the French verb aimer. As I mentioned in the food page, I was able to speak a mixture of Turkish and French with the proprietor of a Turkish restaurant down town. For me, this interaction solidified the complex and hybrid nature of language in Marseille.
Verlan, L'envers
Another fascinating linguistic characteristic of Marseille is verlan, coming from the French word l’envers: the reverse. Verlan is French slang that grew out of some of the poorest immigrant housing projects in the 1980s and has since been used by youths across the country. It was invented by a second generation of immigrants who could not speak Arabic but did not feel entirely French. As Meredith Doran of Penn State University puts it, “Verlan was a way of their establishing their language and their own distinct identity.” In 2009, the University of Paris VIII put together a list of more than 350 Verlan expressions. Many of the words described taboo subjects such as race, drugs, sex, and national origin. A common verlan expression is beur/beurette which is achieved by inverting and reversing the word arabe. It is used to describe a French citizen of Maghreb origin. Verlan is constantly evolving to stay ahead of the main stream. More recently beur has been “reverlanized” to rebeu.
Verlan has made its way into mainstream French culture. It can be heard in rap songs, movies, advertising, and has even been used by several would-be savvy politicans. The 1995 film “La Haine,” which follows three men in a poor Paris suburb, includes many interactions in verlan and requires subtitles in standard French. While often considered the language of uneducated youths, verlan represents something much larger: the emerging “banlieue culture” and the need for a dialogue about taboo subjects such as race, country of origin, and negative stereotypes.
